Show me how to make a copy of my OS

Don Graham · 09-05-2014, 09:03 PM

Hi all, I am what you might called a tinker around kind of guy. To illistrat this. I have crash my Ubuntu four times. I am on my 5th install. I have it set up just the way I like it. I would very much like to have someone eather tell me or show me how to make a copy of my current OS. It would be nice if it could be placed on a live USB stick.

After all it is not if but when I next crash my current OS. So it would be a good idea to have a USB stick all ready loaded.

EDDY1 · 09-05-2014, 09:42 PM

You can clone os as an image or you can clone as a device(exact copy). I usually use clonezilla.

yancek · 09-05-2014, 10:26 PM

Remastersys was developed specifically for this purpose. Although it is not longer being developed, I have read posts at the Ubuntu forums that it still worked with 14.04. I used it on 12.04 so I know that works. Details at the link below.

http://www.distrogeeks.com/install-remastersys-ubuntu/

jdkaye · 09-05-2014, 11:28 PM

Usually backing up your home directory along with all the hidden files gets you most of your original system back (assuming you're reinstalling the same OS). For getting the same system settings, you can also back up your /etc folder. If you have added software not provided by your package manager backing up /opt will give you that. Finally if you have compiled stuff yourself you can back up /usr/local. Something like rsync does the job well.
jdk

syg00 · 09-06-2014, 12:06 AM

I see you have snapshot as a tag - that is certainly another option, but requires you to installed on a valid environment. That would be LVM or btrfs.
Managed appropriately, you can even just reboot from the snap. Doesn't obviate the need for a backup (of the snap) on a more permanent media - say rsync.

Another option I like is fsarchiver, which does CRC checking of the data so you have (much) more confidence in the backup.